Hon Chairperson of this sitting, hon Minister, Chairperson and members of the Portfolio Committee on Labour, Members of Parliament, and ladies and gentlemen, accept my warm greetings.
Labour is defined as the exercise of human, mental and physical effort in producing goods and services. It includes all human effort exerted with a view to obtaining reward in the form of income. Goods and services cannot be produced without human effort. The quality of labour depends on the size of the population and the proportion of the population that is able and willing to work. The quality of labour is even more important than the quantity of labour.
The labour force makes it possible for the economy to grow. In simple English, this labour force we are talking about is the workers. These are the men and women who sell their labour in order to earn a living; who work in the fields to secure food for the country; who work in the deepest mineshafts; who work on factory and shop floors - you name it. The dignity of human beings lies in their ability to provide for themselves and their families.
These workers in our country enjoy protection through our labour laws. The Minister's department is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that these workers' rights are protected and are not simply ignored by captains of industry who would not think twice about exploiting their labour. Madam Minister, we have seen workers who should be protected by labour legislation being excluded simply because they are owned by a labour broker.
We have seen the rights and protection of workers simply being thrown out of the window because they live on "Meneer" Van Vuuren's farm, and because they live on "Meneer's" farm they are at his mercy for shelter. Their rights are determined by the farmer.
We have witnessed the level of inhumane living conditions that workers are subjected to. We have seen farm workers' being accommodated in storage facilities - fruit-drying rooms turned into farm accommodation. These are storage areas with no ventilation, but workers must live in them. On the St Malo farm here in the Western Cape, we have seen children stored in dark storerooms to keep them away from their mothers, who are hard at work producing for the farmer to meet his deadlines to ship his produce to all corners of the world.
We have seen workers doing the same work but getting different remuneration. This is not because the one is less qualified, less skilled or less experienced than the other, but because he is employed through a labour broker. We have seen our labour laws simply being ignored because they lack the teeth to bite. The penalties imposed on contraveners of our labour laws are a mockery to workers who have suffered at the hands of employers. The abusive practices that lead to the violation of labour laws must be prohibited by tightening all the screws of our labour laws to give no room for exploitation.
The International Labour Organisation concluded the Convention concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers last year. The adoption of this convention was deemed historic by many throughout the world, since it was long overdue. Having recognised that domestic workers are still at the coalface of exploitation and marginalisation, the convention seeks to recognise the significant contribution of domestic workers to the global economy. This includes increasing paid job opportunities for women and men workers with family responsibilities, and greater scope for caring for the ageing population, children and persons with disabilities. The following should be considered: domestic work continues to be undervalued and invisible, as it is mainly carried out by women and girls. Many of them are migrants or members of disadvantaged communities and are particularly vulnerable to discrimination in respect of conditions of employment and of work. In developing countries with historically scarce opportunities for formal employment, domestic workers constitute a significant proportion of the national work force, and remain among the most marginalised.
Through you, Chairperson, Madam Minister, a lot of work still needs to be done with the enforcement of our labour laws. As long as we have workplaces that have never seen a labour inspector, our task is bigger than we think. As long as five inspectors share two vehicles with eight other staff members of a labour centre, we are a long way from reaching our target of compliance. As long as our labour inspectors do not have the tools of the trade, we are a long way from enforcing our labour laws.
Some of the challenges are administrative weaknesses in the department - in the inspectorate and with enforcement, to be specific. Previously, we approved more funds, specifically for the Inspection and Enforcement Services, IES. However, we now know that putting more money there does not solve the problem if there are administrative weaknesses.
Allow me to follow the progressive ones who have said they will support this budget. We support the Minister's budget.
However, as I conclude, let me say this. Let the sons and daughters of the African soil who work the fields to secure food for us all; let the miners who dig in the deepest of mineshafts; and let the workers who work in the factories, who give essential services, and who transport goods from Komatipoort to Cape Town, and from the Cape to Cairo, say: "It feels good to be South African today."
Be proud to be South African today, because the South Africa that we live in today has labour laws to protect them, and advocate for their rights as workers. That is the South Africa that we should be proud of. Thank you. [Applause.]